The Department of Homeland Security has said that it will revoke legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, setting them up for potential deportation in about a month.
The order on Friday applies to about 532,000 people from the four countries who came to the United States since October 2022.
They arrived with financial sponsors and were given two-year permits to live and work in the US Homeland Security. Secretary Kristi Noem said they would lose their legal status on April 24, or 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register.
The new policy impacts people who are already in the US and who came under the humanitarian parole programme. It follows an earlier Trump administration decision to end what it called the "broad abuse" of humanitarian parole, a long-standing legal tool presidents have used to allow people from countries where there's war or political instability to enter and temporarily live in the US.
During his campaign, President Donald Trump promised to deport millions of people who are in the US illegally, and as president, he has also been ending legal pathways for immigrants to come to the US and to stay.
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Legal challenge
Before the new order, the beneficiaries of the programme could stay in the US until their parole expires, although the administration had stopped processing their applications for asylum, visas and other requests that might allow them to remain longer.
The administration's decision has already been challenged in federal courts.
A group of American citizens and immigrants sued the Trump administration for ending humanitarian parole and sought to reinstate the programmes for the four nationalities.
The Trump administration has also ended a contract that provides legal help to migrant children entering the country without a parent or guardian, raising concerns that children will be forced to navigate the complex legal system alone.
